1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information processing systems and information processing methods for processing a variety of computerized data and contents. In particular, the present invention relates to information processing systems and information processing methods which allow computerized data and contents to be exchanged with other systems via a removable medium, and to be transferred to other systems via a network.
More specifically, the present invention is directed to an information processing system and information processing method which allows efficient distribution of computerized data and contents using a removable medium and a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the recent technological innovations, general-purpose computer systems, which are relatively small and inexpensive while providing high value added and advanced capabilities, called workstations (WS) and personal computers (PC), are developed and distributed, and are now common in universities or laboratories, companies or offices, and daily life in the general household.
On a computer system, any type of contents, including still picture, motion picture, and sound, as well as program codes and text, is computerized or digitized and processed in a predetermined file format. Computer files may be fixedly stored on the system using a storage device such as a hard disc, or may be stored on a removable medium such as an FD (Floppy Disc), a CD (Compact Disc), a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), and a memory stick, which is exchangeable and detachable from the system. In the latter case, the computer files can be transferred between a plurality of systems using the removable medium.
Furthermore, recently, expectations have been raised for network computing techniques which allow interconnection of computers. The network computing allows users of different computers to share computer resources and to share, distribute, provide, and exchange information smoothly on the network. It also allows the users to collaborate on the computers interconnected via the network.
The network for interconnecting the computers may take various forms, for example, LAN (Local Area Network) such as Ethernet and Bluetooth, WAN (Wide Area Network) which interconnects different LANs via a leased line, etc., and the Internet which has evolved to a literally global network as a result of more and more networks being interconnected.
The Internet has evolved into the huge network as it is today, serving literally as the network of networks, as a result of continued voluntary efforts to interconnect servers (typically UNIX workstations) provided at universities and laboratories. An enormous number of servers are now connected to the Internet, making various information resources available to an enormous number of clients. The servers on the Internet are connected with each other typically based on TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).
On the Internet, various services are available, including WWW (World Wide Web), news, TELNET (TELetypewriter NETwork), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), and Gopher.
WWW is a wide area information retrieval system which provides a hyperlinked information space, and it is the primary contributing factor to the explosive growth and rapid spread of the Internet. WWW allows browsing of various types of contents such as text, image, and sound in a hypertext format. Hypertext information on WWW is described in a hypertext description language called HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). Currently, an enormous amount of various information resources is available on the Internet in the form of HTML documents, some for free and others not for free. The information resources such as the HTML documents are identified on the basis of an identifier called URL (Uniform Resource Locator), and can be transferred in accordance with HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), as is known.
Information such as still picture, text, etc. obtained by or stored on a computer system can be distributed, stored, viewed, and edited via a network.
For example, contents which has been supplied to a computer of a user via a removable medium can be uploaded on a predetermined sever via a network so that the contents can be made public, provided, or distributed to other computers on the network.
In order to transmit contents stored on the removable medium to other systems via the network, the user is required to load the removable medium on a predetermined media drive and execute the transmission of the contents. However, in order to execute the transmission, the user is required to explicitly operate software, etc.
For example, in order to make still picture data captured by the digital camera available on a predetermined HTTP server on the Internet, first, the removable medium, for example, a memory card or a memory stick, is loaded on a media drive of the personal computer. Then, the user needs to operate a software tool which allows access to the removable medium, thereby copying the still picture data onto a disc on the server. Thus, the user is required to have considerable knowledge regarding personal computers and software tools.
As another technique, a type of computer system is known in which a program stored on a CD-ROM loaded on a CD-ROM drive is automatically activated. However, the functionality is operative only within a standalone computer, not allowing transmission of information to other systems connected via the network.